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Sorry to hear about the diabetes, Fleeb. An interesting tip from my nutritionist is to lose all the artificial sweeteners except Stevia. Apparently, in the most recent studies it was the only one that did not negatively impact A1C.

In other news, my dad passed last week in Nashville. :-( As Aahz may remember, my siblings are not exactly on the drama-free side, so everything's been exacerbated by the unnecessary drama. Or maybe that should read exasperating......

My condolences concerning your father, and dramatic siblings. I know I will
have to endure my own father's passing eventually, but I don't mind procrastinating
that as much as possible.

I've already been avoiding artificial sweeteners. None of them taste especially
good to me anyway.

The bigger problem, though, are starches. They're at least as bad as sugars,
but far more subtle. I can't enjoy those anymore, either. No pasta anymore,
which takes out a *lot* of foods I enjoy. I figure I have to be careful with
potatoes and rice as well.

Adhering to a diet isn't as bad for me, having done it before, but it concerns
me to meet so many others who are diabetic and couldn't avoid these foods
I'm avoiding.

I mean, sure, I'm avoiding them now, and it doesn't seem so bad, but will
I be able to maintain this resolve for the rest of my life? Looking at the
examples around
me, it seems harder than I'd think.

For me, the trick involves finding alternatives that I can enjoy without
the health risks. There's tons of great food out there that won't (eventually)
kill me. So, I should enjoy those, in moderation.

Exercising is another challange, though. I'm not exactly an active person.
But, I've been exercizing with a trainer for the last week now, and in about
another three sessions, I'll start working out on my own without a trainer.
It's a tad harder for me, as I'm so badly out of shape my arms and legs remain
in sore pain for full days from the effort, but again, looking at a longer
term.

The main thing about the starches is really to avoid the refined and most easily digestible stuff; you actually want the starches that have a high fiber content. So for example, I switched to either zucchini noodles, chickpea pasta (surprisingly good!) or Barilla Plus (tons of fiber), if I just have to have the real thing.

Having experimented with gluten-free for about two weeks when the IGlet was very little (at the behest of some quack to whom we quickly gave the boot) I can attest that wheat flour is a vital component to a happy life. If it's truly a problem for you, you might find that insulin shots are a more acceptable tradeoff. :)

G'luck with the leg. Unless the screws you meant were in your head, in which
case, maybe you won't know what I'm talking about once they're done.

Not that I make any sense anyway.

Uh, right.

Oh, starches... I plan to return to eating them *after* I've lost the weight
I need to lose, but in a more controlled fashion.

I view them as 'costly'... you eat a little of them, and they provide a lot
of calories for relatively little nutrition. I can get fibre, etc. from other
foods.

This said, I don't think of things like zucchini noodles as a starch so much
as a vegetable masquarading as a starch, so maybe I'm sorta-kinda cheating.

I guess the general idea is to get as much nutrition as possible in as few
calories as I can manage. And, somehow, I think I've done that. Although,
in the couple of days, I've been making a mistake, and have lost weight a
bit too
rapidly, I think.

That is, it's kind of a difficult call ... when you're technically obese,
you can lose weight more rapidly than when you're just a bit chunky, because
your body expends a fair amount of effort just maintaining the fat, and is
rather inclined to burn that fat to get rid of it. When you're merely chunky,
though, the body tends to want to keep the fat just in case those times come
when you don't have ready access to food (evolutionarily speaking, more people
die from starvation than anything else, so we have these tendencies to help
compensate for this).

I am at a point in my weight loss now, I think, where I'm at the cusp of
no longer being obese, but being merely chunky. I'm 5'8.5", at 208 lbs, body
fat at 28.8% (as of this morning, before having breakfast, etc). I've lost
over 1.5 lbs in two days, which feels far too fast, but I'm not sure.

Mind you, I'm
not freaked out... just trying to figure out the right rate for my current
situation before I do something dumb and hurt myself (e.g. lose muscle instead
of fat).

Last session with the trainer today, then I'll work on my own. I'm not as
sore now as when I started, but I know I will not push myself as hard after
today's session, so I'm interested to see what happens.

Would you believe, I was nervous about the surgery and forgot to tell the doctor that I wanted to save the screws. Oh well...

As for carbs ... yes, they are high calorie food, but it's worth being reasonable about it. Rather than simply reducing all carb intake, make selections that are high in fiber and not highly processed/refined. Anything whole grain (that is, actually whole grain and not merely "made with whole grain" which could indicate a blend) is usually a good choice. And remember: fiber makes you feel full.

So, beans are good (in various forms), fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. Rice...
no, sadly. I'm avoiding rice for the time being, even if it's brown and more
healthy than the enriched white stuff.

But, it turns out my company provides a 30 minute consultation with a nutritionist,
so I might give that a go, to make sure I haven't done something stupid.
I'm a bit concerned about cheese now... I kept thinking I'm clear to eat it,
but then I found it has more cholesterol than I realized (when it isn't the
awful stuff). Fortunately, I've kinda limited it anyway since it isn't as
nutritious, embracing it somewhat only because I figured it would help with
building beneficent gut flora with the yogurt I eat before bed.

@Fleeb, in re the cheese (and eggs), the latest research reveals that food cholesterol is not the 1:1 heart disease cholesterol it's been claimed to be the last 30 years. Of course, I'm sure that will change next year. But this year the experts say your cheese and eggs are safe.

@LS - Come to think of it, how is the Penguin? Is she still in Canada?

@IGgy, How's the leg? I actually never got the screws in my knee removed....sometimes they still screw up the metal detectors at the airport.

Yeah, someone needs to send a "wish you were here" postcard from the UCG community
to Penguinkraft.

If cheese were a major contributor to serum cholesterol, I would be dead
already. Cheese is one of my favorite foods and I eat a ton of it. But as
was pointed out, the new understanding is that dietary cholesterol does not
have the direct impact on serum cholesterol that they assumed it did. (In
other words, the "settled science" was wrong.) Unsurprisingly, however, if
you eat a lot of fatty foods, the high calorie intake is going to boost your
serum cholesterol anyway.

From what I am reading, though, fleeb's decreasing tolerance for cheese is
not related to its fat content, but rather the fact that it "is dairy"

So yeah, my two syndesmotic screws are out, and the other eight screws plus
the plate will remain in place. There's some minor pain at the incision site
because
the stitches are still in. After they come out I'll resume physical therapy.
For how long ... I don't know. It's been so long at this point that I'm
starting to worry a little bit about my long term state being more than just
nuisance pain.

So yeah, my two syndesmotic screws are out, and the other eight screws

plus the plate will remain in place. There's some minor pain at the
incision site because the stitches are still in. After they come out

I'll resume physical therapy.
For how long ... I don't know. It's been so long at this point that

I'm starting to worry a little bit about my long term state being more

than just nuisance pain.

I had one syndesmotic screw and a plate plus a few more along my fibula.
Sounds similar to your situation but clearly a little less worse. The plate
is still in there, I can feel it in there from time to time, but it doesn't
really bother me that much and is never actually painful.